Giving Up.
Another short one shot based off The Hunger Games. I own nothing and I don't want to. I could never do justice to the THG story the way Suzanne can(:
Giving Up.
Strapped to a cold metal table, the smell of blood mingling with bleach and half unconscious, Peeta hears a noise. Maybe if he pretends he's passed out they'll leave him alone this time. Yeah right. Peeta knows they won't. He's too close, too important to ever be looked over. It's times like this he envies Johanna. Having no one has an advantage when your partner is "married" to the woman the Capitol is trying desperately find. The door slides open, letting a tongue of light lick at the dark room. Peeta stills. He doesn't dare breathe. The footsteps are gentle; light and quick. Nothing like the heavy metal sounding steps of the Capitol people. Could it be a rebel to free him? He has no idea how long he's been here, in this tiny Capitol cell, but he knows the rebels will have made his rescue top priority. As the door swings open Peeta realizes that what he is seeing is better than he could have hoped. It's Katniss, the love of his life come to save him. On her face is her signature smirk which falls the second she sees him.
"Peeta?" Katniss whispers. Peeta tries to smile, though his face is so destroyed it's no wonder she has to make sure it's him she's speaking with. All he wants to do is stroke her inky black hair and hold her close until they meld into one. But currently he is strapped to the table and besides, his limbs are broken in so many places they resemble branches more than arms. Maybe that's better though. Maybe Katniss could climb into them and never leave.
"Kah- isss.." Peeta hisses through broken teeth, and Katniss begins to cry. Peeta's beautiful smile, the one she loved, the one that meant the begining of their alliance in the Games, is ruined and it was all her fault. The stupid Capitol and their vanity! As Katniss sees Peeta struggling she wishes she had just eaten the deadly berries and let him live on in peace as sole victor for District 12. The both of them winning had cost Peeta so much, and she could never repay him for what the Capitol had stolen.
She knows that's just wishful thinking, though. Peeta's told her enough times he wouldn't be able to live without her. It only took her this long to realize that it was the same for her.
"Peeta, what have they done to you?" She is afraid to touch him- doesn't know one touch from her and even the most impossible of his wounds would heal over. "Oh Peeta, I was so worried. I woke up and you were gone! I thought I had lost you, that the capitol had already killed you, and it was then I realized- (Here is where, if his dry and bloody voice box would make noise, he would make a joke of how absence makes the heart grow fonder). Peeta, I love you."
Can't she see how now he can lift her as if she were made of feathers? Jump over the Capitol buildings and crush President Snow and his army with a single blow? Nothing in the world is impossible if Katniss truely does love him. No ammount of torture or starvation could weaken Peeta when he has Katniss' love to keep his heart strong.
She presses a gentle kiss to his forehead and for a second Peeta closes his bleary and bloodshot eyes to soak in the moment.
When he opens them she is gone. A dream. Just a beautiful, cruel, soul crushing dream. A tear falls from Peeta's swollen eye, a whimper escapes his cracked and bleeding lips. Loud, clunking footsteps get closer and Peeta thinks; let them do their worst, for the Capitol punishment will never compare to the torture of ones own mind.